Townsend: Mavs unified but still in a critical situation

Rick Carlisle wants everyone to understand that beards alone won’t get the Mavericks to back to .500 — much less the playoffs.

Beards did not propel the Mavericks to Saturday night’s 116-91 victory over Golden State at American Airlines Center. Weary Warrior legs clearly played a larger role than Dallas’ facial hair.

Still, with the franchise at a crossroads, the Mavericks exhibited unity Saturday — not only on the court and in the locker room, but among coaches, management and ownership.

The Feb. 21 NBA trade deadline looms, and the Mavericks (22-28), despite a modest two-game winning streak, are in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons.

Mavericks vice president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said it’s too early to know whether the Mavericks will pull off a deal, despite owner Mark Cuban’s declaration last month that the Bank of Cuban is open.

Golden State, bringing in a three-game losing streak and playing its fourth game in five nights, fell into a 30-16 hole after one quarter and trailed, 62-36, at halftime.

Dirk Nowitzki, O.J. Mayo, Vince Carter and several other Mavericks are about two weeks into a pledge of not shaving until the team returns to .500. The Mavericks were last in that territory on Dec. 13, at 11-11.

As for the beards, Carlisle reiterated that he’s in favor of anything that fosters togetherness and teamwork on a roster with nine players who weren’t here last season.

“Any of that kind of stuff, little or big, can contribute, as long as guys understand that the beards are great, but growing a beard is not going to make you play well,” Carlisle said.

“Every season is challenging,” Nelson said. “This one, we kind of haven’t had a season like this in a long time. I think it’s a result of a lot of new faces, Rick pushing a lot of buttons.”

Nowitzki missed the season’s first 27 games after having knee surgery. Carlisle has used 18 different starting lineups.

When Shawn Marion flatly stated Friday that he “won’t go” if traded to a lottery-bound team, some of his wiseacre Twitter followers noted that Dallas isn’t going anywhere, either.

“We’re losing right now, but this isn’t a losing organization,” Marion responded Saturday, before scoring a season-high 26 points, with 11 rebounds.

Nelson isn’t promising a blockbuster before the deadline, but he pointed out Saturday that the 2011 champion Mavericks had only two holdovers, Nowitzki and Jason Terry, from the 2006 Finals roster.

“With Mark’s creativity and ability to have flexibility in the marketplace, I think we’ve gained the trust of our fans over a period of time,” Nelson said. “We’re going to get back there.
“With Mark, my bet is it’s going to be sooner rather than later.”

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